Earn 6x United miles on hotel stays

Good morning from Makassar, South Sulawesi! Today’s newsletter is going to be all about IHG - but don’t worry, you’ll want to know about both of these topics:

• ✈️ Earn 6x United miles from your IHG stays

• ☀️ IHG’s Summer Sale (hurry)

• 📊 Reader Poll: Airbnb or Hotel?

✈️ Earn 6x United miles from your IHG stays

You might not be aware of this, but when it comes to hotel stays, there are many different types of points you can choose to earn.

For example, most hotel programs allow you to earn miles instead of earning hotel points.

The reason you probably don’t know this or that we don’t talk about it is that it’s a much, much worse value than earning hotel points, especially if you have elite bonuses, promotions, etc. to further ramp up your earnings.

Right now, however, IHG is offering the chance to earn 6x United miles per dollar (three times the normal rate) from your stays, which is pretty interesting.

Here are the deets:

• You must register for this offer

• You must switch your preferences to earn United miles instead of IHG points

• You must book your stay by June 30th

• Stays can take place through August 31st

• You can earn a maximum of 15,000 United miles from this promo

Overall, this is interesting for those of you who fly United or use United miles often.

Personally, I’ve been finding some pretty sweet uses for United miles recently.

For example, I’ve been trying to visit Xi’an, China, using China’s visa-free stopover program.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many international flights in and out of the city (which is a prerequisite for using the stopover program), and the ones that do exist are quite expensive.

Since I’ll be in Kazakhstan next month, this flight from Astana to Xi’an on Air China is perfect, other than the $444 price tag…

Thankfully, I can book this flight for just 22,500 United miles and $15 cash, saving me $429 and yielding a value of 1.9 cents per mile.

And this isn’t the only example…

United Miles have saved my butt multiple times this year, and I continue to find routes both in the U.S. and abroad that save me a TON of money.

But back to the main point…

I would personally consider taking advantage of this promotion to earn 6x United miles per dollar on IHG stays given how valuable United miles are to me.

If you want to, it’s as simple as going into your IHG account preferences online and changing the currency you earn, which looks like this:

Having an extra 15,000 United miles in your pocket can come in handy in the U.S. or other unique parts of the world.

And if you sign up for a card like this one (which currently has a HUGE welcome offer), you can transfer even more miles over to United.

Oh, and if you needed a reason to book IHG stays over other hotel programs…

☀️ IHG’s Summer Sale (hurry)

That’s right, IHG is doubling down and offering a great promotion that stacks nicely with the previous one.

Until tomorrow, you can save up to 25% on IHG stays in the U.S. and abroad for stays this Summer.

Here are the deets:

• As I said, you must book your stay by tomorrow

• Stays can take place between May 24th and September 2nd, 2024

• This applies to properties in the following regions (see this page for all details):

  • U.S.

  • Canada

  • Mexico

  • Latin America

  • Caribbean

  • Asia

  • Australia

  • New Zealand

  • Even more

This is a pretty huge sale that covers a massive chunk of the destinations most of you are likely interested in visiting for a summer vacay.

For example, let’s say you want to hop down to Cancun for a quick long weekend.

You could book this Intercontinental for just $228 per night, which is $57 cheaper than the standard rate.

Saving over $150 on a 3-night stay is not bad at all.

But, of course, we can do better. 😉

Let’s say you want to kick things up a notch and head to the Maldives this summer.

Let’s also say that you burned all of your points on flights to get there, and now you need a hotel that won’t break the bank.

With the summer sale, you could book this resort in the Maldives for just $248 per night.

That’s not a bad price at all for the Maldives…

And if you’re concerned about the fact that it’s a Holiday Inn resort and not the Ritz-Carlton, don’t be. I’ve stayed at Holiday Inn Resorts before, and they’re quite nice in my experience!

Considering the $72 nightly discount and the fact that breakfast is included (which is an important consideration when you’re captive on a Maldivian island), this is actually a fantastic deal.

For a 5-night stay, you’d save $360 and experience this famous destination without saving up for years or selling your firstborn child.

So here’s the bottom line:

This is an excellent opportunity to save a lot of money on some really lovely IHG properties all over the world.

Pair it with the offer to earn United miles, and you could walk away with a great trip, a cheap stay, and some extra miles to put toward the next one.

📊 Reader Poll: Airbnb or Hotel?

Okay… so this year, I’ve been playing around with “slow travel.”

This includes booking a couple of Airbnbs for month-long stays, which is not something I usually do.

So far, every Airbnb experience I’ve had has cost me more money, offered less value, and has been less flexible than hotel alternatives.

And yet, it seems to be the far more popular option for travelers that I interact with…

So I’m really curious to hear from you… 👇

When you submit your response, tell me a little more about why!

I’d love to discuss this topic in an upcoming newsletter and am interested in your perspective.

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…or you can just buy these prizes from our website if you want to keep us all to yourself. 😉

That’s all for today, folks! I hope you enjoyed this Monday edition of Daily Drop, and I look forward to chatting again tomorrow.

Take care and have a nice day,

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